Martinsville police detailed their ongoing efforts to address the public’s coyote concerns at Tuesday evening’s council meeting.
“I think our plan is to paint a large black circle on a cliff and have the coyotes run directly into it,” joked Martinsville’s Deputy Chief Chad Rhoads, referencing the kinds of traps Looney Tunes character Wile E. Coyote often falls for.
Councilors invited Rhoads to their Tuesday meeting to address the public’s fears about coyotes encroaching on Martinsville’s borders. Rhoads said his office is aware of the concerns and is working to protect residents.
“The way you are doing it is the way it should work,” Rhoads said. “You’ve brought this matter to our attention … and you will begin to see a difference.”
Rhoads said his department has investigated complaints.
“We’ve seen the evidence, we know that it exists,” Rhoads said. “We’ve had our trappers … go down into these hollows on the east side of town in your neighborhoods.”
They’re in the process of locating the coyote dens and believe that the dens could be close to residential areas. They have located at least one den but are not disclosing its location.
“It is on a hillside in one of these gullies off of Mulberry [Road],” he said.
“It is against the law to trap and relocate coyotes,” Martinsville Police Chief Rob Fincher said. “If attempts are unsuccessful at den harassment, making the pack move, or if the pack is showing signs of human aggression, they will have to be put down.”
Dean Johnston, who lives on Mulberry, is among the residents who reported having encountered coyotes. He played a recording he said was coyotes howling near a neighbor’s home.
“I’ve lived here in Martinsville a long time,” Johnston said during the meeting’s public address segment. “I have a granddaughter that is 3 and a granddaughter that is 1 and a half. A lot of the people here have small dogs that they like to go on a walk [with]. As a predatory animal that kills for its food, it doesn’t need to be inside the city where we have limited ability to remove those animals.”
City code prohibits residents from firing guns in Martinsville limits. Police have the authority to kill coyotes under an ordinance passed in 2020. Both Fincher and Capt. Allen Hall of the sheriff’s office have said that their departments haven’t had to shoot any coyotes since that ordinance was passed.
Fincher and Rhoads said this doesn’t mean that residents’ concerns aren’t valid.
January and February are peak months for coyote sightings, according to Leah Card, the furbearer project leader for the Department of Wildlife Resources. Card recently offered her thoughts on best practices for avoiding and surviving coyote encounters, which included locking up smaller indoor animals.
In other news, the council approved a 90-day extension on the second reading of changes to the city’s garbage-related ordinance in order to further collect information from the public.
“We wanted more input, especially over the next 90 days, we wanted to be doing more outreach and add to the discussion as much as possible,” said Mayor LC Jones.
Earlier this month, business owners, residents and officials held a community meeting to discuss prescribed changes to how the city collects trash in its Uptown district. Suggestions included replacing weekday trash pickup with strategically placed dumpsters or combining dumpsters with fewer trash pickup days.
